Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum should I get them to close the lid?

A family I teach for, they have this baby grand. Every week when I come the lid is open, so I think it stays that way. Should I get them to close it when not being played to keep the dust out?

does anyone ever clean inside? What would you recommend?

Disclaimer: I have no knowledge of who tuned their piano, and I did not, and have no intention of, quoting them how much a tuning costs. Just so we're clear.

You made me smile.

I would recommend keeping the lid closed when the piano is not in use. If it remains open for many years, it will warp then it won't close. I ran into a Kimball grand, about, oh, 6'6" maybe that did this. The lid was never shut. When I tried closing it all the way, it was so warped, it wasn't even come close to closing. Plus, it helps a LOT to keep it cleaner inside when it closed. Sure, it's more work but, hey, it's exercise too!

Yes, we do clean inside. I even tell the customer to GENTLY showing them how to, clean inside of the piano telling them to leave the dampers and strings alone. If they must clean the dampers, I show them how to clean them without damaging them. It's pretty easy.

It's nice that you come to the house. That kind of teacher seems to be a dying breed. I don't know of anyone around here that does that anymore.

Yes, absolutely! Sure, it may not look as elegant, but I've done this with my grand for the past 10 years, and it has, to this day, not needed an interior cleaning. Based on anecdotal evidence, it also seems to keep pianos in tune longer.

You could also recommend a string cover if they insist on keeping the lid up: http://edwardsstringcovers.com/

For interior cleaning, I like the Spurlock Tools: http://www.spurlocktools.com/id32.htm

Thanks for the tips and the info. I will pass them on.

Because of the high humidity in my area, I usually recommend leaving the piano open if there is not a Dampp Chaser, and closed if there is one. That mold can sometimes do a permanent job on an older finish. The stuff has roots.

We don't really get humidity here. Not hot enough.

Brilliant! This is the best argument I've ever heard for keeping the lid down.

It seems that the danger of warping the lid depends on the piano and/or lid material.

My 1961 Yamaha G7 has been completely open for most of it's life and whenever I do close it (rarely) it is not warped in any way.

I'm sure that it does get dusty inside quicker.

If someone asked me, in spite of my experience, I would probably recommend closing it most of the time.

My wife and I had the discussion about the lid being up or down before we got married. We couldn't really agree, so I said that we would always put it all the way down or I would take the lid off completely. THAT got her attention. Now that's what we do, and there hasn't been a problem. Oh, someday we may get a grand piano and we'll have to have a discussion about that lid, too...

Gee, Jeff, if I didn't know any better, and, maybe I don't, I would have thought you were talking about the toilet seat lid!!!

Good to see you got the important issues sorted before getting married. Lots of folks don't really bother with the piano-lid pre-nup.

My wife insists on keeping the lid down when it's not in use. It kinda overwhelms the room when it's open -- the piano, that is.... ;-)